Debate over red-light cameras continues in New Jersey

TRENTON — Despite years of negative feedback, the National Coalition for Safer Roads, (NCSR) has secured over 12,000 New Jersey residents who say they support the use of red-light safety cameras.

“The purpose of the petition was to show there indeed was a public support in New Jersey for cameras,” said David Kelly, executive director of the NCSR. “We know cameras are an effective tool for law enforcement and the results in New Jersey have been very positive.”

A 2012 study, released by the NCSR, revealed that there is no time on the road when a driver is not at risk of encountering a red-light violator and that red-light cameras are a very useful tool in identifying and driving awareness of distracted and careless drivers.

Although the technology has help local law enforcement keep an electronic eye in the sky on major intersections, including three in Mercer County; and have generated a new stream of revenue for the local municipalities, some lawmakers have attacked the use of cameras, saying they actually cause more harm than good.

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In early 2013 a study conducted by the Lawrence Police Department showed that rear-end accident actually increased at the intersection of Route 1 and Franklin Corner Road/Bakers Basin Road, where a red-light safety camera was installed in late 2011.

Lawrence Police Chief Daniel Posluszny announced in February that the township recorded a total of 50 crashes — 39 of which were of the rear-end variety, between December 2011 and November 2012. By contrast, before the Department of Transportation installed the camera, there were only 38 — including 30 rear-end collisions — between November 2010 and October 2011.

“If you are going to have such rigid prosecution of people at these intersections you want to make sure you are treating them fairly which means you have to set yellow light time based on the traffic speeds at those intersections,” New Jersey State Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, R-13th.

The legislature claimed to have definitive proof of the lack of calibration and set timings from camera lights which turn from yellow to red. O’Scanlon said he believes the cameras were installed without an appropriate survey of how long it takes a vehicle to pass through the intersection before the light changes from yellow to red.

In September, the technology company American Traffic Solutions, which installed and was tasked with measuring the appropriate calibration from yellow to red in 18 municipalities, settled a class action lawsuit. The case alleged that, prior to Aug. 1, 2012, red light camera tickets issued by ATS failed to comply with the N.J. statute authorizing red light cameras because the municipalities had not filed the proper paperwork with the New Jersey Department of Transportation prior to beginning operation of the systems.

The NCSR refutes the local data saying that according to new data obtained from the Rutgers Plan4Safety crash database, right angle crashes continue to decline at monitored intersections throughout the state. The data compiled by ATS indicates that intersections with cameras in place for two years has 59 percent fewer right-turn crashes from the first year of use to the second.

“At a time when red-light safety cameras have come under attack from radical state legislators the people of New Jersey are speaking out loudly in support of using these tools to keep their roadways and loved ones safe,” said Kelly.